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I've recently encountered a simple sentence in a
[video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEBLibNzayQ) that confused me
grammatically. (see 2:08)

> 子供が考える時には、 **待っていないといけない** ですよね。

My assumptions:

待っていない = negative continuous form of 待つ

といけない = have to

I've rarely seen this combination used in context and I can't find any
resources online that explain this usage.

My questions are:

  1. Why doesn't the speaker say 待たないといけない instead? As far as I understand, it would mean the same thing.
  2. In what situations would I use this combination ていない＋といけない?
  3. Am I correct in assuming this と is not the conditional と? If so, does this also apply to the other forms? i.e. ○○ていなくちゃいけない、ていなきゃいけない、ていないとだめ etc.

I appreciate any comments and feedback!


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question
grammar meaning usage
What does ○○ていない + といけない mean?


  1. The difference between `待っている` and `待つ` is whether continuous or not, as you are aware of. The difference there is smaller than other cases such as `立っている` and `立つ` probably because an action to wait is always made continuously to some extent. In negative forms, the difference gets less identifiable and sometimes used interchangeably. However, by saying `待っていないといけない`, you can still add some implications such as waiting in front and/or a tone of continuous attachment/awareness/attention.

  2. I cannot explain gramatically, but native speakers would semantically decompose the phrase as `待ってい + ないといけない` rather than `待っていない + といけない`, where `ないといけない` as a whole means `have to`. It might be a matter of choosing preceding action rather than a situation used.

  3. I am not sure I understand your question correctly, but `なくちゃいけない`, `なきゃいけない`, `ないとだめ` are all variations of `ないといけない`.


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といけない does not mean "have to" by itself. と is "then", and いけない is "no good",
so the combined meaning of といけない is something like "then (it's going to be)
bad".

  * この本を子供が読むといけない。  
If kids read this book, then it's going to be bad.  
→ Kids shouldn't read this book.

You need to add another ない for it to mean "have to" (i.e., double negative):

  * 子供はこの本を読まないといけない。  
If kids don't read this book, it's going to be bad.  
→ Kids have to read this book.

Likewise:

  * 待つといけない。  
If you wait, then it's not good.  
→ You should not wait.  
→ Let's not wait.

  * 待っているといけない。  
If you keep waiting then it's not good.  
→ You should not keep waiting.  
→ Let's stop waiting.

  * 待たないといけない。  
If you don't wait, then it's not good.  
→ You have to wait.

  * 待っていないといけない。  
If you don't keep waiting, then it's not good.  
→ You have to keep waiting.

* * *

To answer your questions:

  1. 待たないといけない is also perfectly fine in this context, but the -teiru form implies you'll need to wait patiently for a while.
  2. Whenever you want the meaning of "keep ～ing", as you can see in the examples above.
  3. This と _is_ the conditional と [described here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1784/5010).


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As a logical matter: while
[いけない](https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/must) is usually considered
as just an expression (or rather part of an expression), it's really the
negative (as one would expect from its construction) of
[いける](https://jisho.org/word/%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B). We get a sense that
the negated meaning is "isn't good; doesn't go well with; doesn't suit the
situation" (like 合わない, but stronger - strong enough that it can be used to
imply a prohibition, or as seen here, a requirement).

Japanese has a strong tendency to treat double negatives logically, rather
than using them for emphasis (as in some Romance languages; English is
somewhere in the middle). If not-continuing to wait is impermissible, it
follows that waiting is obligatory. It's said this way because simply using a
positive verb form wouldn't be able to create that sense of obligation -
there's no explicit "must" modal, so the sense has to be created by excluding
alternatives.

The same thing happens with the collocation しかない (which can be separated to
some extent). しか is a particle analogous to は, but it adds a meaning of "other
than". However, it's also a strongly [negative polarity
item](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1565), so it's only found
with verbs in a negative conjugation. Supposing それしか言わなかった: if things other
than "that" were not said, it follows that "that" is the _only_ thing that was
said.

So if I'm thinking straight, something like 待つことしかない should be roughly
equivalent to 待っていないといけない, too. (As naruto says, the と is conditional, so it
gives a sense of hypothesis; whereas しかない expressions simply assert that there
is no choice.)


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It would be very surprising if a native speaker were to parse 待っていないといけない as
待ってい + ないといけない. Leaving aside the analysis of 待っていない, with a bracketing
notation, the sentence is construed as [[待っていない] と] いけない]. といけない does not form
a constituent, nor does ないといけない (unless this were a sentence on its own
meaning 'it must exist').

と simply means 'if' here, introducing the 'protasis' of a condition, and
except for the fact that it is a separate word, the conditional meaning is
conveyed no differently from 待っていなければ.

In other words, there is no single constituent in the sentence conveying the
sense of obligation, it simply arises from saying 'if [I/we] don't stay
waiting [for him], it won't do' => '[I/we] have to wait [for him]'. This
[circum-]locution is common enough in Japanese and Chinese and Korean, but
Japanese does have a verb form to express this, namely べき, 待つべきです, '[I/we]
have to wait [for him]'.


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